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Tara Carreon
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| Bulletin Board, by Ted Rall wrote: | GUANTANAMO STAYS OPEN. BUT IT'S BETTER UNDER OBAMA.
[CIA Torturer] Also you are now required to buy healthcare.
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Tara Carreon
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:54 pm Post subject: |
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| alpha-phi-alpha.com wrote: | Alpha Phi Alpha
33rd General President Herman "Skip" Mason, Jr., author, educator, historian, and community servant is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended the Atlanta Public Schools, graduating from Therrell High School in 1980. He received his Bachelors of Arts degree from Morris Brown College in 1984. Following graduation, he went on to receive a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science with a concentration in African-American History from Clark Atlanta University in 1989. He has also studied at the Phillips School of Theology. Currently, he serves as the Interim Vice President of Student Services/Dean of Students and College Archivist at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and holds the endowed directorship as the Edward and Hermese Director of Morehouse College’s Learning Resource Center.
“Since the day I picked up the Alpha history book (and that was before I went on line),
I have been madly in love with Alpha's history.”
Mason was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., on April 4 1982 through the Iota Chapter at Morris Brown College. By August of the same year he was President of the chapter. During his tenure as Chapter President, the Iota Chapter made many strides and was credited with many successes, including being named Georgia College Chapter of the Year in spring 1983.
During his senior year in college, Mason began attending Eta Lambda Chapter meetings. After graduating from Morris Brown College in 1984, he immediately joined the Eta Lambda chapter and has been active since that time.
Over the past twenty-six year, Herman “Skip” Mason, Jr. has been an active member of the Fraternity. During his first year as a member of the chapter, he was assigned to work on the Eta Lambda Historical Committee with Brother Daughtry Thomas, A.J. Lewis and Father H.J.C.Bowden. Within a few years, Mason became the committee chair and published a pictorial history of Eta Lambda Chapter. Within the Eta Lambda Chapter, Mason has also served as President, Chaplain, Historian, and Chairman of various committees. Most notably, during Mason’s term as President, the chapter contributed over $50,000 to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Project and a tenant was acquired for the Alpha Community Center, which led to the sale of the center for 1.3 million dollars.
Mason has also been actively involved in the Georgia District and the Southern Region, serving as a member of the leadership team at both levels. As the Historian for the Southern Region, a history of the Southern Region was published.
On the National level, Herman Mason, Jr. has served in the administrative cabinets of many of Alpha’s Past General Presidents. Under the leadership of the 29th General President, Milton C. Davis, Brother Mason was appointed as the fraternity's first National Archivist. During his tenure, the fraternity's archives were transferred to the Moorland Spingarn Research Center at Howard University.
Herman “Skip” Mason, Jr. has authored several books and produced various videos including: Going Against the Wind: A History of African Americans in Atlanta; Black Atlanta in the Roaring Twenties; African-American Life in Jacksonville, Florida; The History of Black Entertainment in Atlanta; and History of African-American in DeKalb County, African-American Life in East Point and Washington, Georgia and the Talented Tenth: The Founders and Presidents of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He has also served as a consultant and curator on numerous projects and exhibits documenting the African-American experience. He served as a consultant and researcher for the documentary “Alpha Phi Alpha: A Century of Leadership.
Mason has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Iota Chapter Brother of the Year, Georgia Alumni Brother of the Year, Southern Region Brother of the Year and National Alumni Brother of the Year, 2006 Georgia Governor’s Award in the Humanities and the Outstanding Georgia Citizen from the Secretary of State Office.
In 27 years of membership, Mason has attended twenty-six (26) General Conventions-- only missing his first convention in 1982, because he was not informed that there was one. He has attended the Inaugurations of Past General Presidents Sutton, Teamer, Ponder, Davis, Wallace, Johnson and Matthews.
Currently, the 33rd General President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Mason is also a member of Sigma Pi Phi (Kappa Boule'), and Prince Hall Masons, St. James Lodge No. 4 and the Atlanta Consistory No. 24. He is a member of Leadership Atlanta, the Society of American Archivists, the Association for the Study of Afro American Life and History and serves on the Board of the Atlanta Branch of the NAACP.
He is married to Harmel Codi Mason and they are the parents of two children, Jewel and Jodari. |
| Africanwithin.com wrote: | Prince Hall
1735?-1807
Nationality: American
Occupation: Abolitionist, Leather crafter
Introduction
Civic leader Prince Hall was the most famous black in the Boston area during the American Revolution and through the turn of the nineteenth century. He was the founder and master of the world's first black Masonic lodge, African Lodge No. 459, which laid the basis for an organization that continues to this day. Though apparently self-taught, he used his eloquence to organize the black community politically on such issues as slavery, public education, and economic equality.
Narrative Essay
Prince Hall's parentage, birthplace, and date of birth are unknown, but he is believed to have been born about 1735. Little is known of his personal life. The most widely circulated version of his life, which originated in William H. Grimshaw's 1903 book The Official History of Freemasonry among the Colored People in North America, has been strongly discredited; but most history books draw directly or indirectly from it for their own sketches of Hall. In truth, almost nothing about Hall can be documented prior to 1770. Compounding the lack of recorded information is the existence of other blacks named Prince Hall living in the Boston area during this period.
The earliest mention of Hall's name in a documented statement indicates that he was the slave of a Boston leather-dresser named William Hall in the late 1740s. Prince Hall, consequently, was taught leather crafting as a trade. During his servitude, he joined the Congregational Church, School Street, Boston, in 1762 and married fellow slave Sarah Richie on November 2, 1763. The marriage ended with her death on an unrecorded date.
William Hall gave Prince Hall his freedom on April 9, 1770, as reward for 21 years of steadfast service. A few months later, on August 22, he married Flora Gibbs of Gloucester, a small seaside town northeast of Boston. They had one son, Prince Africanus, who was baptized on November 14, 1784, at the New North Church, Boston. At some point in his life he may have fathered a second son, Primus Hall, by a woman named Delia. Shortly after his marriage to Gibbs, Prince Hall opened his own leather goods shop, The Golden Fleece, which became successful. He also worked as a caterer.
Free Black Lodge Founded
Free blacks in and around Boston had little social or political power in the Revolutionary War era. They also lacked formal organizations through which to coordinate beneficial endeavors. In early 1775, Hall petitioned to become a member of Boston's St. John's Lodge of Freemasons but was turned away, presumably because of his race.
Soon thereafter, he and 14 other free black men approached a British army lodge of Freemasons attached to the 38th Foot Regiment, stationed near Boston. Hall and the others were initiated into the lodge on March 6, 1775. The regiment withdrew from the area a short time later, and Sergeant John Batt, who had been in charge of the initiation, issued a limited permit on March 17 allowing the group certain Masonic privileges as well as permission to meet as a lodge. On July 3, 1775, the group formed African Lodge No. 1, the first lodge of black Free and Accepted Masons in the world, and Hall was made master. Provincial Grand Master of North America John Rowe granted the lodge a second limited permit to continue their activities.
Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War had begun with skirmishes at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Rumors that Hall took up arms as a patriot have not been substantiated. Many blacks served in the Continental Army, and historians have claimed that as many as one in seven were men of color. It is certain, however, that Hall used his leather crafting skills to provide five leather drumheads for the Boston Regiment of Artillery, as stated in a bill of sale dated April 24, 1777, written by Hall.
Public records from the time show that Hall was both a taxpayer and regular voter. He was politically active and rallied his fellow Masons and the Boston community at large to support black causes in which he was involved.
On January 13, 1777, Hall was among eight black petitioners to the Massachusetts state legislature requesting the abolition of slavery in the state. Hall's signature was one of four belonging to Masons, whose names topped the document. The petition adopted the same terminology used by the nation's founding fathers to state their case for freedom from Britain. It was also similar to one sent to Governor Thomas Gage on May 25, 1774, which had been rejected by the British governor. State legislators referred the 1777 petition to the Congress of the Confederation, possibly as a way to avoid the issue themselves. Slavery in Massachusetts was later ended by a state judicial decision in 1783.
Reference to African Lodge No. 1 virtually disappeared from the public record during the latter years of the war for independence, perhaps because many members were away fighting. At war's end, the lodge was still without a permanent charter. Hall wrote to his Most Worshipful Master William Moody of Brotherly Love Lodge No. 55, London, on March 2, 1784, but received no reply. A second letter on June 30, 1784, had the desired effect. On September 29, 1784, a charter was granted authorizing the organization of African Lodge No. 459 in Boston under the leadership of Prince Hall as master. After a lengthy wait, the charter arrived in Boston on April 29, 1787.
In 1786 another rebellion began brewing in the western half of Massachusetts. Named for Captain Daniel Shays, the Shays' Rebellion pitted former patriots who had returned to debt-ridden properties, mostly farms, against the moneyed classes who controlled the banks that were now foreclosing on them. Governor James Bowdoin called for troops to travel west to crush Shay's insurgents. On November 26, Hall wrote a letter to Bowdoin offering the governor the services of 700 black troops he said he could raise; but Hall's offer, which may have been made to declare the black community's loyalty to the new state, was rejected. White politicians were perhaps as afraid of the possible consequences of arming a large group of black men as they were of dealing with the already-armed white farmers of the west.
The following year, Hall reversed his loyalty to the state government and proposed that the state organize a back-to-Africa movement in a petition of January 4, 1787. Leading a committee of 12 members from the African Lodge, Hall proposed that the state secure funds for sending Massachusetts' black population to a point on the African coast. The proposal also called for a colonization effort that would result in mutual benefit to both parties, including extensive future trade between the two states. The petition, which appears to be the first major statement on African colonization by black Americans, died in committee.
Hall then turned his attention to other issues. On October 17, 1787, he petitioned the state legislature to provide education for black children. Blacks were taxed on an equal basis with whites, but only white children received state-supported education. The petition failed, and Hall was equally unsuccessful in obtaining local support for public schools.
Hall was successful, however, in helping to end the slave trade in Massachusetts. In early February 1788, three free black Bostonians, one a Mason, were lured aboard a ship by a captain promising work. Instead, the men were kidnapped, shipped to the Caribbean, and sold as slaves. In a February 27 petition attacking the slave trade, Hall and 21 other Masons stated their outrage at the seizure of their fellow citizens. The state legislature passed an act on March 26 designed to prohibit the slave trade within the state's borders and to provide recourse for the families of those abducted. Sufficient pressure was applied by Governor John Hancock and the French consul in Boston to obtain the release of the men from the French island of St. Bartholomew. The African Lodge organized a celebration to mark their return home in July of that year.
Hall pressed on for equal education. In 1796 he urged the selectmen of Boston to create a separate school for black children. His request was approved, but the selectmen claimed that no suitable building could be acquired, and the issue remained unresolved.
In an address to the African Lodge at Menotomy (now West Cambridge) on June 24, 1797, Hall focused on slavery in the United States. Reflecting on the recent slave revolt on the West Indies island of Hispaniola that resulted in the creation of Haiti, he encouraged his audience to have faith in God and to bear their burdens quietly, but to be ready for the day of deliverance. The Voice of Black America quotes Hall's petition: Now, my brethren, nothing is stable; all things are changeable. Let us seek those things which are sure and steadfast, and let us pray God that, while we remain here, he would give us the grace and patience and strength to bear up under all our troubles, which, at this day, God knows, we have our share of. Patience, I say; for were we not possessed of a great measure of it, we could not bear up under the daily insults we meet with in the streets of Boston, much more on public days of recreation. How, at such times, are we shamefully abused, and that to such a degree that we may truly be said to carry our lives in our hands, and the arrows of death are flying about our heads. Helpless women have their clothes torn from their backs, even to the exposing of their nakedness. ... My brethren, let us not be cast down under these and many other abuses we at present are laboring under, for the darkest hour is just before the break of day. My brethren, let us remember what a dark day it was with our African brethren, six years ago, in the French West Indies. Nothing but the snap of the whip was heard, from morning to evening. Hanging, breaking on the wheel, burning, and all manner of tortures were inflicted upon those unhappy people. But, blessed be God, the scene is changed.
Hall did not hold all white men accountable for the institution of slavery; in fact, he hoped that with the support of like-minded whites, black men could help bring about abolition through persuasion. However, he was not encouraged by the fact that even white Masons did not freely accept their black counterparts, despite their claims to liberty, fraternity, and love of God.
As black masonry continued to remain separate from white masonry in the United States, Hall spread his organization to other cities. On June 24, 1797, a second black lodge was chartered in Providence, Rhode Island. A year later, a third one was started in Philadelphia, with Absalom Jones as worshipful master and Richard Allen as treasurer.
On June 28, 1798, Hall appears to have married for a third time. Sylvia (or Zilpha) Ward would remain his wife until his death a decade later.
In 1800 Hall made a second request to the selectmen of Boston to acquire a building for a black school. After another refusal, Hall offered his own home for the school. A pair of Harvard College students served as teachers until 1806. At that point, increased enrollment forced a move to larger facilities, which were provided by the African Society House on Belknap Street.
Prince Hall died in Boston on December 4, 1807. Funeral rites, in accord with masonic rites, were performed at his home in Lendell's Lane one week later. He was buried in the 59th Street Mathews Cemetery, Boston, in late March, 1808, after a large procession of blacks followed his body to the gravesite. Within a year of his death, Hall's followers renamed their order for their former, much-beloved leader.
Born in obscurity, Prince Hall literally worked himself free of his lowly beginnings. Through diligence and effort he cultivated his abilities, then used them to help others do the same. His name lives on in the title of the largest and most well-regarded black fraternal order, the Prince Hall Masons.
Sources
Foner, Philip S., ed. The Voice of Black America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.
Kaplan, Sidney. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution 1770--1800. Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 1973.
Logan, Rayford W., and Michael R. Winston, eds. Dictionary of American Negro Biography. New York: Norton, 1982.
Salzman, Jack, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel West, eds. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA/Simon and Schuster Macmillan, 1996. |
| MichaelsBlog wrote: | http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/MichaelsBlog/CcS9
Re: Moreover/Obama Muslim? Not Muslim Prince Hall Mason!!!
Mar 28th 2008 at 3:35 pm EDT
By LITTLE DINE' FOR RECALL ON COLUMBUS DAY
There is not one shred of evidence that he is Muslim. Grandpa told me that Barack Obama is a 32nd degree Prince Hall Mason, and goodstanding member of Royal Arch Masons,and Nights Templary.
Reverend Jesse Jackson is a 33rd degree Mason.
Reverend Jermiah Wright is also a 32nd degree mason. There are many very colorful high profile people that are Prince Hall Masons, to include Louis Farrakahn. I just can not understand why Louis Farakahn has been accepted as a high degree Mason, if he is totally contrary to most of the requirements and precepts for acceptability as a Mason in most of the Masonic Orders of the Nation and the International Masonic Orders known as Universal Masons..
The Prince Hall Masons belived to be of the Afro American Community are extremely prolific in the United States. There is a memebership of over 300,000, not including the Prince Hall Eastern Star Mason auxiliary composed by women only. Women can not be Masons.
There are hundreds of auxiliary orgs. that are under Prince Hall Masonry which is composed by huge numbers of members that could not rate accepted as masons due to requirements that were very scrutinized as to their background checks.
Reverend Al Sharpton being one a major activist in said organizations and member there of along with a huge number of Obama supporters and people in his campaign staffing....
Grandpa told me that Prince Hall Masonry is not exclusively for Blacks, he told me that a select group of people that are not of black heritage, but yet not anglo european caucasian, are Prince Hall Masons.
Grandpa is very learned on Masonoic Orders and high profile individuals that belong to many Masonic Theosophic Orders both Universal as well as international and Universal Masons Brotherhoods.
The enlightenment grandpa gave me on the subject makes me wonder if his control and knowledge of several languages and the inside intricacate trappings as to function of the Orders, might be related to the possibilty of him being of the masonic Universal Massons Orders.
However I guess that If and when he wants me to know he will clarify this to me. I do know for a fact he wears a peculiar ring with an eagle emblem and a diamond in the middle of the eagle in a triangular shape . The Eagle has its wings pointing downwards, and it is engraved on the sides with greek Character letters. The ring is really beautifull, made of Platinum and Yellow gold. He has different jewlry and rings which I thought were class rings.
Does anybody know what the Eagle ring might stand for?
I have never asked grandpa about it.
Peace to all here little Dine' |
| Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Michigan wrote: | According to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Michigan, notable Prince Hall Masons include:
•Jesse Jackson
•Thurgood Marshall
•Count Basie
•Duke Ellington
•Al Sharpton
•Congressman Charles Rangel
•Nat King Cole
•W.E.B. DuBois
•Alexander Dumas
•Alex Haley
•Kweisi Mfume
•Don King
•Richard Pryor
•Alexander Pushkin
•Sugar Ray Robinson
•Booker T. Washington |
| New York Times wrote: | July 14, 2008, 10:12 pm
Sorority Celebrates Michelle Obama’s Acceptance
By AUSTIN BOGUES
New York Times
Michelle Obama is sometimes compared to Jackie Kennedy, but she may now have something in common with another first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. The wife of F.D.R. became a honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, an historically black organization founded in 1908, and the group announced this week at its Centennial Convention in Washington that Mrs. Obama had agreed to join.
The sorority said that once Mrs. Obama is formally inducted into the organization, which has 225,000 members, she can’t become a member of any of the other “Divine Nine” organizations, as black sororities and fraternities are often called. Other honorary members of Alpha Kappa Alpha include the poet Maya Angelou, the late Coretta Scott King and former astronaut Mae Jemison.
But tonight a spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, said: “Because of her respect for each of the historically black sororities and fraternities, her membership is non-exclusive. She looks forward to working with all of them to help bring change to their communities.”
Black fraternities and sororities have long been strongholds in the African-American community, taking roles in organizing during the civil rights movement. Most are involved in charitable causes and they enjoy an occasionally friendly rivalry at events such as step-shows. .
There has been speculation on black college campuses in the past year about whether Mrs. Obama would accept an invitation to such a group. Joining different organizations is often seen as an indicator of personality type. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, belonged to Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest historically black fraternity. The Rev. Jesse Jackson is a member of Omega Psi Phi.
“I know that there is a very large powerful A.K.A. contingent in Washington, D.C. and Chicago,” said Lawrence Otis Graham, the author of “Our Kind of People:Inside America’s Black Upper Class,” a book examining elite black social organizations.
Mr. Graham attended Princeton with Mrs. Obama and said there was not a chapter of the organization on the campus then. Mr. Graham said the fact that Mrs. Obama hadn’t been a member of a sorority before underscored her lack of “elite” ties in black social circles.
“It definitely gives them bragging rights,” Mr. Graham said of AKA. “She is the Jacqueline Kennedy of this period right now.”
According to Alpha Kappa Alpha, the criterion for consideration as an honorary member is that “prospects have made outstanding achievements that set them apart in their communities and careers.” |
| Upper Iowa University wrote: | Obama made honorary member of UIU frat
FAYETTE, Iowa (December 30, 2007) - Senator Barack Obama (D) made a scheduled stop in Oelwein on Friday, Dec. 14, just a mere 17 miles from Upper Iowa University (UIU) in Fayette. A number of UIU students and staff joined the more than 100 other Obama supporters at Oelwein Middle School. The group was transported to Oelwein in vans sponsored by Upper Iowa's Alpha Nu Omega fraternity.
The fraternity had also signed up to do campaign service for Obama that day so decided to seize the moment and ask the Illinois Senator to be an honorary member of Alpha Nu Omega. Prior to the start of Obama's speech, all volunteers are given an opportunity to take photos with him. This is when the seven fraternity members presented the senator with a certificate and invited him to be an honorary member, which Obama gladly accepted with a handshake. The group also gave him an Alpha Nu Omega T-shirt.
"We wanted to make Obama an honorary member because we believe strongly in his efforts to make our country better," said UIU senior Fred Robby. "We hope that one day he will become president and be too busy ‘rebuilding America's standing in the world' to keep in touch with us."
This is not a new concept for this organization because, back in 1994, it made both the Rev. Jesse Jackson and former congressman Dave Nagle honorary members. The two were in Fayette County at the time promoting voter registration.
Also volunteering and in attendance for the presentation was Oelwein resident Reggie Hall. Hall is a UIU grad, employed at the Oelwein branch of Full Circle, and one of the original founding fathers of the Alpha Nu Omega fraternity on campus. The fraternity currently has 15 members, with Dr. Doug McReynolds serving as their advisor. McReynolds is the former chair of the Fayette County Democratic party. The fraternity plans to send a delegate to caucus for Obama this coming January.
For more information about the Iowa caucus, go to www.iowacaucus.org. For information about Upper Iowa University, go to www.uiu.edu. |
| Wikipedia wrote: | Alpha Nu Omega
Alpha Nu Omega is a national Greek letter organization founded in 1988 that comprises both a fraternity and sorority under one Constitution. The Constitution mandates that both branches of ANQ are Christian social Greek letter organizations.
History
Alpha Nu Omega, Inc. was founded on November 3, 1988 to fill what the Founders perceived as a void in the college and university community. They believed that as a part of the Body of Christ, they had been strategically placed by God on the college campus to connect the future leaders of the world back to God Himself as they believe God has been seeking to do ever since the fall into original sin. |
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Tara Carreon
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Location: Tucson, Arizona
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Wikipedia wrote: | List of Alpha Phi Alpha brothers
The list of Alpha Phi Alpha brothers (commonly referred to as Alphas[1]) includes initiated and honorary members of Alpha Phi Alpha (AΦA), the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter organization established for Black college students.[2] Founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Alpha Phi Alpha opened chapters at other colleges, universities, and cities, and named them with Greek-letters. Members traditionally pledge into a chapter, although some members were granted honorary status prior to the fraternity's discontinuation of the practice of granting honorary membership. A chapter name ending in "Lambda" denotes a graduate chapter. No chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha is designated Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet that traditionally signifies "the end". Deceased brothers are respectfully referred to as having joined Omega Chapter. Frederick Douglass is distinguished as the only member initiated posthumously when he became an exalted honorary member of Omega chapter in 1921.[2]
The fraternity through its college and alumni chapters serves the community through nearly a thousand chapters in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean."[3] The fraternity has been led by 33 General Presidents and its membership includes two Premiers, three Governors, a Vice President, three Senators, a Supreme Court Justice, two Presidential candidates, Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Lenin Peace Prize, Kluge Prize, and French Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre laureates, and at least four Rhodes Scholars, eighteen Diplomats, fourteen Presidential Medal of Freedom, four Congressional Gold Medal, and seventeen Spingarn Medal recipients, and eighteen Olympians. Buildings, monuments, and schools have been named after Alpha men such as the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge, and the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The House of Alpha
The honor of serving as General President is especially heartfelt when one recognizes that in "The House of Alpha", the President is "One Among Equals."
-- James R. Williams[4]
The House of Alpha was written in 1946 by fraternity brother Sydney P. Brown as a dedicatory statement for the "Alpha House" (fraternity house) of Theta Chapter and Xi Lambda chapter who jointly shared the fraternity house. Loyalty to the Fraternity ideas was repeatedly urged by brothers on the part of those who were among the initiated, and for every chapter with the vision of a fraternity house. The statement has become a manifesto for the national fraternity and chapters, as each may symbolically be referred to as a "House of Alpha".[2][5]
Eugene K. Jones, sometimes referred to as "The Visionary Jewel" once said:
Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest of Negro Fraternities, with all of its members presumably far above the average American and having a good and practical understanding of the salient factors involved in the Negro's problem...should be able to take into their hands the leadership in the Negro's struggle for status.[6]
Here follows a list of notable Alphas.
Vice Presidents and Supreme Court
Hubert Humphrey, Honorary, 38th Vice President of the United States; 1968 Presidential candidate; Senator from Minnesota; Mayor of Minneapolis; 1979 Congressional Gold Medal and 1980 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient [22][81]
Thurgood Marshall, Nu, First Black Justice of U.S. Supreme Court; Attorney in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; First Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; 1946 Spingarn Medal and 1993 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient [55][82]
Cabinet and Cabinet-level Ranks
Lee P. Brown, Epsilon Beta, Director of National Drug Control Policy; First African-American Mayor of Houston, Texas [35][83]
Robert J. Brown, "unknown", Special Assistant for Minority Affairs [2][84]
William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr., Psi, Secretary of Transportation; First Black Supreme Court law clerk; co-author of the brief in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; co-counsel on the landmark case, McLaughlin v. Florida, which established the constitutionality of interracial marriages; Editor of the Harvard Law Review; 1995 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; [55][85]
Rayford Logan, Omicron, First Executive Director of the National Urban League; Member of President Franklin D Roosevelt's Black Cabinet; 2nd Executive Director of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH); 1980 Spingarn Medal recipient; 15th General President of Alpha Phi Alpha [8][86]
Samuel Pierce, Alpha, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Martin Luther King Jr. and the New York Times in the important First Amendment case styled New York Times v. Sullivan; first African-American to serve on the Board of Directors of a Fortune 500 company [55][56]
Emmett Scott, Honorary, Special Assistant to the Secretary of War [43]
Louis Wade Sullivan, Alpha Rho, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Co-founder and first President of Morehouse School of Medicine [16]
Members of the United States Congress
Edward Brooke, Beta, Senator from Massachusetts; Attorney General of Massachusetts; Chairman Emeritus of World Policy Council; 1967 Spingarn Medal and 2004 Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient [28][55][87][88]
Roland Burris, Beta Eta, Senator from Illinois–appointed to fill the seat vacated by President Barack Obama; First Black Illinois Attorney General [89][90]
Emanuel Cleaver, Eta Gamma, Representative from Missouri; Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri [22][91]
Danny K. Davis, Gamma Delta, Representative from Illinois [92]
William Dawson, Theta, Representative from Illinois [16]
Ron Dellums, Delta Omicron, Representative from California; Co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus; Mayor of Oakland [55][93][94]
Julian C. Dixon, Gamma Xi, Representative from California [55]
Chaka Fattah, Zeta Omicron, Lambda Representative from Pennsylvania [16]
Floyd H. Flake, Zeta Gamma Lambda, Representative from Illinois; President of Wilberforce University [18][19]
Harold Ford, Sr., Beta Omicron, Representative from Tennessee; Legislator of Tennessee [55]
William H. Gray, Rho, Representative from Pennsylvania; House Majority Whip and House Democratic Whip; CEO of the United Negro College Fund [16]
Al Green, Beta Nu, Representative from Texas [92]
Earl F. Hilliard, Alpha Rho, Representative from Alabama; Legislator of Alabama [55]
Gregory W. Meeks, Zeta Zeta Lambda, Representative from New York; New York State Assembly [55]
Ralph Metcalfe, Nu Xi, Representative from Illinois; Co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus; 1932 and 1936 Olympian [55][94]
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., "unknown", Representative from New York [55]
Charles B. Rangel, Alpha Gamma Lambda, Representative from New York; Co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus; First Black to chair the Committee on Ways and Means; New York State Assembly Representative [16][94][95]
David Scott, Beta Nu, Representative from Georgia [96]
Robert C. Scott, Sigma, Representative from Virginia [16]
Bennett M. Stewart, Xi Lambda, Representative from Illinois [20]
This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries. |
| Wikipedia wrote: | Cornel Ronald West
Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. West is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Center for African American Studies and in the Department of Religion. West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement. The bulk of his work focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their “radical conditionedness." West draws intellectual contributions from such diverse traditions as the African American Baptist Church, pragmatism and transcendentalism.
West is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-Americans. He is a member of the fraternity's World Policy Council, a think tank whose purpose is to expand Alpha Phi Alpha's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass international concerns.[9] [1] |
| Wikipedia wrote: | Alpha Phi Alpha Notable Members
Roland Burris
Roland Burris, Beta Eta, Senator from Illinois -- appointed to fill the seat vacated by President Barack Obama; First Black Illinois Attorney General [92]
Joseph Lowery
Joseph Lowery, "unknown", Co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); delivered the benediction at the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009; 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient . |
| Wikipedia wrote: | Alpha Phi Alpha, by Wikipedia
On the eve of the Inauguration of Barack Obama, the fraternity hosted a Martin Luther King Holiday program at the National Press Club "to honor yesterday's 'firsts'—those in history who paved the way for the nation to be able to celebrate the first African-American president."[48] Alpha Congressman Chaka Fattah said "The life and legacy of Dr. King [was] a predicate for the election of Barack Obama,” “The two are inextricably linked."[49] Alpha Phi Alpha responded to President Obama's clarion call to Americans to remake America by implementing a public policy program to focus on saving America’s black boys.[50] The fraternity appealed to President Obama to create a "White House Council on Men and Boys" and partner with Alpha Phi Alpha to specifically address the needs of this group on a national level.[51] |
| St.JamesLodge4.org wrote: | The History Of St. James Lodge No. 4
On March 5, 1871 Saint James was the fourth Lodge chartered in Georgia under the Grand Master of Masons for Georgia, Rev. James M. Simms. In 1866, after Simms had chartered Eureka Lodge and Hilton Lodge in Savannah, and Bannekar Lodge in Augusta; Simms chartered the first Lodge in the Atlanta area under the leadership of the Minister of Big Bethel A.M.E., Church, Francis J. Peck. This Lodge was home of the best of Black Society in the city’s Capitol. Since it’s inception in 1871, the brothers of St. James #4 have lead the way for freemasonry in Atlanta. Many of the Past Masters have had the honor and distinction of being Commanders and Chief in the Scottish Rite for Atlanta Consistory. Past C-n-C’s were, J. Earl Acey, Charles E. Martin, and Robert Jefferson Jr. J.E. Acey, R. Jefferson, J. Grady, Chambliss and Rowland all had the distinction of serving as Potentates of NAABAR Temple #128 Shriners. There were no other Masonic bodies in the Atlanta area when St. James was instituted. There was a St. James Lodge of “The Good Samaritans”, and a St. James of “Odd Fellows” Lodge, and it is probable that many of these members helped to form this new organization comprising Atlanta’s Black elite. It was not until 17 years after the formation of St. James That Rising Sun #23 was chartered in Atlanta in 1887. Gate City, (Tilman Lodge #19 at the time), was chartered also in 1887, but documentation suggests that Gate City was started by John D. Campbell’s Grand Lodge of the AF&AM. Although Plymouth Rock Lodge #86 came about in 1891 and Crystal Lodge #112 (now W.C. Thomas Lodge), in 1892, St. James has remained one of the largest and most successful Lodges in the Atlanta Masonic District. There is evidence to suggest that St. James #4 was originally chartered as #5 (see the charter) in Grand Lodge until 1888 when it became #4. St. James #4’s charter is one of the oldest Black American documents in Atlanta. |
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Tara Carreon
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Posts: 994
Location: Tucson, Arizona
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 1:56 am Post subject: |
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| Prince Hall Masonic Week wrote: | Prince Hall Masonic Week
WHEREAS, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Alaska Inc., Free and Accepted Masons of the Alaska Jurisdiction has been in existence since September 1969.
WHEREAS, the members of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, F. & A.M. and the Prince Hall Grand Chapter Order of Eastern Stars have rendered valuable service in all levels of government and in their communities. The Prince Hall Masonic Family has become a valuable resource in Alaska, through its civic contributions.
WHEREAS, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge will convene its 39th Annual Communication and the 36th Annual Communication of the Prince Hall Grand Chapter, Order of Eastern Stars, beginning April 19, 2008, in Anchorage, Alaska.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 19-22, 2008, as:
Prince Hall Masonic Week
in Alaska, and encourage all citizens to observe these days.
Dated: April 2, 2008 |
| Wikipedia wrote: | Sigma Pi Phi
Sigma Pi Phi is the first African-American Greek-lettered organization. Sigma Pi Phi was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 15, 1904. The fraternity quickly established chapters (referred to as "member boules") in Chicago, IL and then Baltimore, MD. [1] The founders included two doctors, a dentist and a physician [2]. When Sigma Pi Phi was founded, black professionals were not offered participation in the professional and cultural associations organized by the white community. [3] Sigma Pi Phi has over 5,000 members and 112 chapters throughout the United States and the West Indies.[1]
Founders
Dr. Algernon B. Jackson
Dr. Henry McKee Minton
Dr. Edwin C. Howard
Dr. Richard J. Warrick
Membership
Membership to Sigma Pi Phi is highly exclusive, number only about 5,000 [4]. The organization is known as "the Boule," which means "a council of noblemen." [5] Founded as an organization for professionals, Sigma Pi Phi never established college chapters, and eliminated undergraduate membership during its infant stages. [6]. However, Sigma Pi Phi has historically had a congenial relationship with college Black Greek-Letter Organizations, as many members of Sigma Pi Phi are members of both. Sigma Pi Phi founder Henry McKee Minton and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were both members of Alpha Phi Alpha, while Arthur Ashe was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. Vernon Jordan and L. Douglas Wilder are members of Omega Psi Phi. James Weldon Johnson was a member of Phi Beta Sigma, as is civil rights leader and member of Congress John Lewis (D-GA). Members of Sigma Pi Phi have provided leadership and service during the Great Depression, World War I, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and addressed social issues such as urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues affecting people of African descent. |
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Tara Carreon
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Troubletown, by Lloyd Dangle wrote: | HE DOESN'T SEEM LIKE ONE OF US.
[Obama] I don't need approval to start wars.
THERE'S SOMETHING THAT'S NOT RIGHT ABOUT HIM.
[Obama] We can torture Bradley Manning. The Pentagon says so.
MAYBE HE WASN'T BORN HERE.
[Obama] I call for more drilling.
HE PLAYS TOO MUCH GOLF.
[Obama] I order the assassination of Anwar Al Awlaki.
HE'S VERY ENIGMATIC, YET SOMETHING IS FAMILIAR ABOUT HIM.
[Obama] I declare mission accomplished in Libya
SSSUCK-POP!
[Obama-Bush] Surprise! You misunderestimated me again! HAH! HAH!
THE EARS SHOULD'VE BEEN A GIVEAWAY
copyright 2011 |
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Tara Carreon
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Bulletin Board, by Ted Rall wrote: | DECISION 2012: WHICH ONE IS MORE CREDIBLE?
[Obama 1] First we cut taxes for the rich. They'll invest. Economic output will increase. Eventually: Jobs.
[Obama 2] Unemployed? Don't like it? Kill yourself.
copyright 2011 Ted Rall |
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Tara Carreon
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| Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 9:23 am Post subject: |
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In this statement, Obama convicts Osama before the trial is even held. A bit of a paradox, isn't it? Osama never even got on the FBI's Most Wanted List for 9/11. They have given us NO proof, whatsoever, that Osama was behind 9/11. Some statements by the Bush administration that they think he did it? What the hell is that? An administration that took us into an illegal war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and tortured prisoners? We're supposed to believe them? When the military stood down, and was nowhere to be seen on 9/11? When the Pentagon was hit, and didn't protect itself? When they used 9/11 as an excuse to take away all of our freedoms, and make flying a living hell? Why is everyone in our country so brainwashed and unable to think for themselves? Who could believe ANYTHING that ANY of our government officials say? I mean, their lips are moving. Where is the body? Where is the proof? And when is killing heroic? NEVER! Killing is done to hide the evidence of someone talking.
I don't believe ANY of this bullshit. Obama is just trying to get reelected, the bastard! Just like Bush!
| Barack Obama wrote: | | “The first thing I’d support is [Usama Bin Laden's] capture, which is something this administration has proved incapable of achieving. I would then, as president, order a trial that observed international standards of due process. At that point, do I think that somebody who killed 3,000 Americans qualifies as someone who has perpetrated heinous crimes, and would qualify for the death penalty. Then yes.” |
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Tara Carreon
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| Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 9:50 am Post subject: |
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This is the kind of world we live in: a Totalitarian world, don't kid yourselves.
Fahrenheit 451, directed by Francois Truffaut
http://www.naderlibrary.com/fahrenheit.toc.htm
[TV Announcer] [Osama] is still at large, but time is running out fast.
Ah, there it is. The Aerial Patrol has sighted the wanted man.
[The Journal of Henri Brilard] They can't keep the viewers waiting much longer. The show must go on. They'll find somebody. Anybody will do to provide them with their climax.
[TV Announcer] There he is. You can see him clearly now.
There is Osama, running headlong into the trap, scurrying about like a frightened rat. Just look at him, cousins.
[Gunfire continues]
[TV Announcer] It's all over, cousins. Osama is dead.
A crime against society has been avenged.
[The Journal of Henri Brilard] They never showed the man's face properly. It was too far away, of course. Even your friends are bound to believe you're dead.
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Tara Carreon
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| Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 10:11 am Post subject: |
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| Robert Burns and Calvin Woodward wrote: | Not everyone believes bin Laden really is dead
By ROBERT BURNS and CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press
Robert Burns And Calvin Woodward, Associated Press – Mon May 2, 9:36 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Knowing there would be disbelievers, the U.S. says it used convincing means to confirm Osama bin Laden's identity during and after the firefight that killed him. But the mystique that surrounded the terrorist chieftain in life is persisting in death.
Was it really him? How do we know? Where are the pictures?
Already, those questions are spreading in Pakistan and surely beyond. In the absence of photos and with his body given up to the sea, many people don't believe bin Laden — the Great Emir to some, the fabled escape artist of the Tora Bora mountains to foe and friend alike — is really dead.
U.S. officials are balancing that skepticism with the sensitivities that might be inflamed by showing images they say they have of the dead al-Qaida leader and video of his burial at sea. Still, it appeared likely that photographic evidence would be produced.
"We are going to do everything we can to make sure that nobody has any basis to try to deny that we got Osama bin Laden," John Brennan, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, said Monday. He said the U.S. will "share what we can because we want to make sure that not only the American people but the world understand exactly what happened."
In July 2003, the U.S. took heat but also quieted most conspiracy theorists by releasing graphic photos of the corpses of Saddam Hussein's two powerful sons to prove American forces had killed them.
So far, the U.S. has cited evidence that satisfied the Navy SEAL force, and at least most of the world, that they had the right man in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The helicopter-borne raiding squad that swarmed the luxury compound identified bin Laden by appearance. A woman in the compound who was identified as his wife was said to have called out bin Laden's name in the melee.
Officials produced a quick DNA match from his remains that they said established bin Laden's identity, even absent the other techniques, with 99.9 percent certainty. U.S. officials also said bin Laden was identified through photo comparisons and other methods.
Tellingly, an al-Qaida spokesman, in vowing vengeance against America, called him a martyr, offering no challenge to the U.S. account of his death.
Even so, it's almost inevitable that the bin Laden mythology will not end with the bullet in his head. If it suits extremist ends to spin a fantastical tale of survival or trickery to gullible ears, expect to hear it.
In the immediate aftermath, people in Abbottabad expressed widespread disbelief that bin Laden had died — or ever lived — among them.
"I'm not ready to buy bin Laden was here," said Haris Rasheed, 22, who works in a fast food restaurant. "How come no one knew he was here and why did they bury him so quickly? This is all fake — a drama, and a crude one."
Kamal Khan, 25, who is unemployed, said the official story "looks fishy to me."
The burial from an aircraft carrier in the North Arabian Sea was videotaped aboard the ship, according to a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because a decision on whether to release the video was not final. The official said it was highly likely that the video, along with photographs of bin Laden's body, would be made public in coming days.
The swiftness of the burial may have raised suspicions but was in accord with Islamic traditions. Islamic scholars, however, challenged U.S. assertions that a burial at sea was an appropriate fate for a Muslim who had died on land.
The act denied al-Qaida any sort of burial shrine for their slain leader. Once again, bin Laden had vanished, but this time at the hands of the United States and in a way that ensures he is gone forever.
If that satisfies U.S. goals and its sense of justice, Brad Sagarin, a psychologist at Northern Illinois University who studies persuasion, said the rapid disposition of the body "would certainly be a rich sort of kernel for somebody to grasp onto if they were motivated to disbelieve this."
Also expected to come out is a tape made by bin Laden, before U.S. forces bore down on him, that may provide fodder to those who insist he is alive.
Pakistan, for one, is a land of conspiracy theorists, and far-fetched rumors abound on the streets and in blogs throughout the Arab world. But that's not just a characteristic of the Islamic pipeline. Many ordinary Americans — and one billionaire — persistently questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S. despite lacking any evidence that he wasn't.
Sagarin said most people will probably be convinced bin Laden is dead because they cannot imagine the government maintaining such an extraordinary lie to the contrary in this day and age.
Yet, he said, "as with the birther conspiracy, there's going to be a set of people who are never going to be convinced. People filter the information they receive through their current attitudes, their current perspectives."
To be sure, even photos and video, subject to digital manipulation, may not provide the final word to everyone. But Seth Jones, a RAND Corp. political scientist who advised the commander of U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the administration should do all it can to minimize doubts.
"There are always conspiracy theories," he said. "There are individuals who believe that bin Laden wasn't involved in the 9/11 attacks."
__
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Abbottabad, Pakistan; Malcolm Ritter in New York; and Lolita C. Baldor, Ben Feller, Matt Apuzzo and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report. |
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Tara Carreon
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| Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 10:27 am Post subject: |
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| Webster Griffin Tarpley, wrote: | http://www.naderlibrary.com/911.syntheticterrormadeusa.htm
WHAT DO YOU KNOW AND HOW DO YOU KNOW IT?
Many readers are by now spluttering with indignation. We can hear them expostulating: “The official version of 9/11 is a myth and a lie!” – followed by a string of obscenities worthy of Dick Cheney. But think for a minute: if you think you know all about 9/11, how do you know what you think you know?
The first identification of Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda as the perpetrators came during the day on September 11, as various commentators and announcers for cable, broadcast, and public television began floating the charge that Bin Laden and al Qaeda were behind the attacks. Apparently CNN was the first to mention Bin Laden, and the other myth-mongers immediately followed its lead. In retrospect, we know that many of these leaks came from two important functionaries in the Washington bureaucracy. These were George Tenet, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who should have been fired that same day, but who was allowed to resign in disgrace in June 2004, on the eve of the publication of a Senate Intelligence Committee report which pilloried him and his agency for gross incompetence. This was the same Tenet who later assured Bush that the case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a pretext for a US invasion was a “slam dunk.” The other prime myth-monger was Richard A. Clarke, the former terror czar of the Clinton administration who had been kept on by Bush. Clarke had a long history, of which many of his gulled victims at those hearings were unaware. He had been dropped from the State Department by James Baker III because he was accused of concealing Israeli exports of US military technology to the People’s Republic of China which were banned under US law, and which the Israelis had agreed in advance not to carry out. In some quarters, Richard Clarke’s name was mentioned at the time of the hunt for MEGA, the Israeli mole thought to be operating in the White House. Clarke is a close friend of Israeli defense officials, among them David Ivry of the Israeli Defense Ministry.
As Clarke recounts in his recently published memoir: “At the outset of the first Gulf War, Ivry and I conspired to get our governments to agree to deploy a US Army Patriot unit in Israel. No foreign troops had ever been stationed before in Israel. We also worked together to sell Patriots to Israel, and to tie in the Kiriat [the Israeli Pentagon] with American satellites that detected Iraqi Scud missile launches towards Israel. After the war, the CIA circulated unfounded rumors that Israel had sold some of the Patriots to China. Many in the State Department who thought I was ‘too close to Israel’ sought to blame me.” (Clarke 46) Clarke was a protégé of Arnold L. Raphael (killed in the same plane crash with Gen. Zia of Pakistan), and worked closely with Morton Abramowitz.
On the morning of Sept. 11, as the White House was being evacuated for fear that it could be hit after the strikes against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the first top official to say “This is Al Qaeda!” had been Richard Clarke. (New York Times, December 30, 2001). When Clarke arrived at the White House a little after 9 AM on 9/11, he found Cheney and Condoleezza Rice alone in Cheney’s office. “What do you think,” asked the horrified Cheney. Clarke’s immediate reply: “It’s an al Qaeda attack and they like simultaneous attacks. This may not be over.” (Clarke 2) This is the moment of conception of the 9/11 myth. At this moment Clarke, as a New Yorker would say, didn’t know from nothing. Had he ever heard of strategic deception? Had he ever heard of diversionary tactics? Had he ever heard of feints?
Clarke tells us in his memoir that he attempted to collect his thoughts about the events going on around him as he walked from the White House Secure Videoconferencing Center just off the Situation Room across the White House to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which was Cheney’s underground bunker:
In the quiet of the walk, I caught my breath for the first time that day: This was the “Big al Qaeda Attack” we had warned was coming and it was bigger than almost anything we had imagined, short of a nuclear weapon. (Clarke 17)
This is already one of the most fateful snap judgments in world history. Had Clarke utterly forgotten the lessons of Oklahoma City, when leakers had inspired the report that the explosion was the world of Moslems? Clarke had no proof then, and has come forward with none since.
Rushing to overtake Clarke as the leading hipshot in snap strategic diagnosis was CIA Director Tenet. While Bush was cowering in his spider hole at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, he conducted a National Security Council meeting by means of teleconference screens. “Who do you think did this to us?” Bush asked Tenet. Tenet was emphatic: “Sir, I believe it’s al Qaeda. We’re doing the assessment, but it looks like, it feels like, it smells like Al Qaeda.” (Bamford 2004 91) In other words, Tenet also had no proof, no evidence, no case – just his crude Lockean sense certainty.
Later, after World Trade Center 7 had gone through its inexplicable and embarrassing collapse at about 5:20 PM, Clarke addressed a high-level interagency meeting from the Situation Room. Present by video link were Armitage of State, General Meyers of the JCS, and other important officials. Clarke stated: “Okay, we all know this was al Qaeda. FBI and CIA will develop the case and see if I’m right. We want the truth but, in the meantime, let’s go with the assumption it’s al Qaeda. What’s next.?” (Clarke 23) Before he went to bed in the White House, Bush jotted a note to himself: “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today. We think it’s Osama Bin Laden.” (Bamford 2004 92)
Given the fecklessness of Bush, Cheney, and Rice, Richard Clarke was running the US government on 9/11, and it was he who made the myth of the exclusive responsibility of al Qaeda/Bin Laden into the official policy of the US. Clarke can thus claim pride of place as the originator of the 9/11 myth. And Clarke was more than a mythograph. Clarke also shared in the responsibility for the bungling and stupid attack on an aspirin factory in Khartoum, Sudan, after the bombing of US embassies in east Africa in the summer of 1998. If there were an Oscar for deception, Clarke’s performance at the Kean-Hamilton Commission hearings in April 2004 would have won it. It was that virtuoso performance which launched Clarke on his current career as a television commentator predicting imminent WMD terrorist attacks on this country and advocating the speedy imposition of martial law. We will hear more about this gentleman later. All we need to note right now is that anyone would be foolish to buy a used car from Clarke or Tenet.
Another early official fingering of Osama Bin Laden as the guilty party came from Secretary of State Colin Powell on September 13. At this point Powell was competing for attention with the fulminations and Schrecklichkeit of neocons like Wolfowitz, who was ranting that the US would “end states harboring terrorism,” and would do so unilaterally, without reference to the collective security of the United Nations. Already voices of caution were being raised about another ill- prepared rush to judgment. Professor Paul Rogers, of Bradford University's peace department, warned against assuming Middle East extremists were behind the tragedy. “We've been here before. With Oklahoma, everybody assumed it was Middle East [terrorists], then it turned out to be home-grown Timothy McVeigh,” he said. “Again with the pipe bomb in Atlanta, it turned out to be domestic.” (Guardian, September 11, 2001) In any event, this was the same Colin Powell, who in February 2003, before the United Nations Security Council, perjured himself on the question of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. This was the same Colin Powell who alleged mobile biological weapons labs, chemical weapons dispensers, and tubes being used for centrifuges in the process of uranium enrichment. This was the same Colin Powell who committed the most spectacular perjury in the history of the United Nations Security Council.
On September 14, the FBI, which had known nothing about anything before the attacks, published its infamous list of nineteen hijackers. As we will soon see, the mortality rate among those supposed kamikazes was less than 100%, with no less than seven of the suspects named turning up alive and well in the days after this list was published. More importantly, this was a list prepared by the same FBI which had been responsible for the Waco massacre of men, women, and children in 1992, the agency that illegally withheld documents in the capital murder trial of Timothy McVeigh, an abuse which ought to have caused his conviction to be thrown out, but which only caused it to be delayed. This is the agency whose vaunted Crime Lab turned out to be a sewer of incompetence and corruption. This is the same FBI which clumsily attempted to entrap and frame up the innocent Richard Jewel during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games, while the real culprit went free. This is the same FBI which persecuted the Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee without any grounds, accusing him of having transferred secrets to the People’s Republic of China. This is the same FBI which permitted the Soviet mole Robert Hanssen to operate inside it for fifteen years. This is the agency which ostracized John O’Neill, and which ignored the Phoenix memorandum and Colleen Rowley’s warnings from Minneapolis. This is the same FBI which could not capture the Unabomber over decades, until his own brother turned him in. This is the same agency which, over the previous months, in the words of Governor Kean of the 9/11 Commission, “failed and failed and failed and failed and failed.” Are we then to believe that on September 14 this troubled and incompetent agency enjoyed a brief interlude of success, as represented by the list of the 19? And if they did succeed that day, they must have soon lapsed back into incompetence again, as seen in their utter failure to prevent the October 2001 anthrax attacks, or ever to identify the perpetrator, perhaps because the anthrax in question was weapons grade material which had come from a US military lab, probably Fort Detrick, Maryland. This was the same FBI whose main activity after 9/11 seemed to consist in confiscating relevant evidence and tampering with witnesses, telling them that had not seen what they knew they had. Anyone familiar with the record will have a very hard time taking seriously such allegations coming from the discredited, dysfunctional FBI.
BUSH AS INVETERATE LIAR
The definitive identification of Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda as the authors of the atrocity came only on September 20, in Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress. Bush stated:
The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole. […] This group and its leader – a person named Osama Bin Laden – are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction. The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda’s vision for the world. […] And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: deliver to the United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. […] These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share their fate. […] Our war on terror beings with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated. (Bush 10-11)
Here we can see how inextricably the naming of Bin Laden and al Qaeda is bound up with the unilateral preventive war doctrine, the attack on Afghanistan, and the aggression against Iraq. But let us put these remarks into contact. Some months later, delivering his January 2003 State of the Union address from the same podium in the well of the House of Representatives, this same Bush intoned:
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. (January 28, 2003)
These infamous sixteen words added up to one Big Lie in Dr. Goebbel’s sense, as has been amply demonstrated. In the same speech this same Bush claimed:
We’ve also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical and biological weapons across broad areas. We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States. (January 28, 2003)
No such vehicles ever existed. This same Bush also alleged:
From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents and can be moved from place to place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them. (January 28, 2003)
Mobile labs of the type described by Bush have never been found in Iraq. Experts have speculated that these wildly exaggerated reports were based on vans used for public health purposes, or perhaps on ice cream trucks. On another occasion the very same Bush asserted:
The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has had numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his “nuclear mujahedeen,” his nuclear holy warriors. (October 7, 2002)
But the renewed nuclear program turned out to be a chimera, most likely invented by the neocon darling, convicted bank embezzler, and betrayer of American state secrets, Achmed Chalabi, to justify his $400,000 monthly stipend provided by the American taxpayer. This was the same Bush who had conjured up the specter of an Iraqi nuclear attack on the United States:
Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. (Cincinnati, Ohio, October 2, 2002)
The internet teems with web sites dedicated primarily to keeping up with Bush’s legendary, picaresque mendacity. Bush has lied about the cost of his prescription drug boondoggle, about nonexistent economic reports he claimed had buttressed his economic prognostications, about all spheres of policy. He has lied about funding first responders, grants for port security, payments to children’s hospitals, and veterans’ benefits. The tenant of the White House has a troubled relation to the very concept of truth.
This is the man who has acquired an unparalleled at home and abroad reputation as a liar – at least, in those quarters, like the Office of Canadian Prime Minister Chretien, where he was dismissed as a moron. This is an administration in which blatant lying has become part of the daily routine – in part because of neocon guru Leo Strauss’s theory that truth is dangerous for the masses, and rulers therefore have to be esoteric, that is, lie through their teeth. But whether Bush is a cretin or a liar, his statements offer no sufficient basis for falling in with the neocons in their march towards endless war against the entire world. Knowing what we knew as of late 2004, no person of good judgment could ever accept statements from the current regime at face value. Nevertheless, otherwise intelligent people who would not dream believing Bush about Iraq or other issues are content to swallow his biggest whopper of them all: his 9/11 story. This doublethink must end. The Bush regime is a castle of lies and fabrications, and the keystone of all of them is the 9/11 myth.
It is now proverbial in Washington to remark that there is no proof linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11, and this is certainly true. But, by the very same token, there is also no proof in the public domain anywhere that adds up to a case against Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda. We should point out that we hold no brief for the misfit sheikh and his sociopathic followers. Bin Laden was a creation of the CIA, and his al Qaeda followers, to the extent that they exist at all, are doubtless individuals characterized by a surfeit of criminal intent. But we must not join the anonymous CIA agent author of the recent book Imperial Hubris in portraying the inept and unstable Bin Laden as a genius. Taken by themselves, Bin Laden and his band represent supermarket-caliber terrorists, capable of bombing a shopping center, or of destroying a bus. Any capabilities above and beyond this can only be explained through assistance provided by intelligence agencies, primarily but not limited to the American ones. There is no doubt that Bin Laden and his benighted gaggle would have desired to inflict destruction on the scale of 9/11. What is at issue is their physical and technical capability of doing so on their own in the universe as we otherwise know it to be constituted. From this point of view, Bin Laden and company emerge perhaps as actors in the plot, but playing the parts of patsies, dupes, fall-guys, or useful idiots. The main point remains that Tenet, Clarke, Powell, the FBI, and Bush have produced no convincing evidence to establish the 19 Moslem men, al Qaeda, and Bin Laden as the authors of the crimes. |
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